When I think back over the year, the thing that strikes me the most is how successful Saanich council has been at decreasing the quality of life in Saanich. Much of their success relates to the arbitrary and short-sighted nature of their decisions and their unwillingness to compromise.

I have worked in Saanich and area for over 30 years, coached my children's soccer teams and walked and ran through PKOLS park with three generations of Labrador retrievers. I came to love the peace and quiet of running with the dogs and bought a house adjacent to PKOLS.

This all came to an end when Saanich changed the off-leash dog walking regulation to align with B次元官网网址渓ike-mindedB次元官网网址� municipalities despite the majority of Saanich citizens indicating on surveys that they did not want change. Although some residents undoubtedly prefer dogs on leash, and dogs can cause some habitat damage, solutions suggested by residents which would have allowed more off-leash areas while satisfying other concerns, were arbitrarily dismissed. The increased emissions and biodiversity loss associated with the extensive land use change, construction and population increase in Saanich undoubtedly caused orders of magnitude more habitat damage and climate change than off-leash dogs although the latter were, unfortunately, an easy target.

At the same time unorganized, histrionic demands from federal and provincial governments forced municipalities to change building zoning and increase house construction. Local governments took the process one step further and prevented their citizens, the people councillors purportedly represent, from having any say in the design of the local communities in which they live. While they can attend meetings at which they are told what is about to happen there is no meaningful mechanism for them to influence the outcome. The result has been transportation gridlock and a deepening dissatisfaction with council's leadership.

Luckily we live in a democracy and can hopefully address these problems at the next election.

Aidan Byrne

Saanich